Reuters: Shell says Irish workers threatened in dispute: “Workers on a Shell gas project in western Ireland have received threats of violence in an escalating row over the construction of a gas pipeline, the company said on Tuesday.”: Posted Tuesday 19 July 2005
Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:00 PM BST
By Kevin Smith
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Workers on a Shell (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) gas project in western Ireland have received threats of violence in an escalating row over the construction of a gas pipeline, the company said on Tuesday.
A Shell (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) spokeswoman said workers in Rossport, County Mayo, where the company is building a pipeline to transport gas inland from its offshore Corrib field, had reported "a number of instances of intimidatory (sic) behaviour by third parties.
"We have advised our employees that if they have been subject to intimidatory behaviour or threats, these instances should be reported to the local gardai (police)," she said.
Shell Exploration & Production Ireland is embroiled in a dispute with Rossport residents over the safety of the pipeline, which it plans to run inland for 9 km (5.5 miles) to a processing plant.
Residents, concerned about the high-pressure pipeline running past their homes, want Shell to process the gas on an offshore shallow water platform instead.
Shell has said the 300 million euro (228.1 million pound) pipeline meets stringent safety regulations and will be built to "world-class standards".
Jerry Cowley, a local member of parliament opposed to the project, said the campaigners were committed to peaceful protest.
"We would abhor any suggestion of intimidation by anyone," he told Reuters.
The dispute escalated late last month after five residents were jailed for contempt of court for refusing not to obstruct the laying of the pipeline through their lands.
The jailing of the five galvanised support for the protest, sparking pickets at Shell petrol stations and almost daily demonstrations by Mayo locals.
"What resonated with people was that if those five men could simply be taken from the high court and thrown into jail, it could happen to anyone," Maura Harrington, a spokeswoman for a pressure group called Shell to Sea, told Reuters.
She said the pipeline, a section of which would pass through boggy land with a history of landslides, would "impose an unacceptable risk upon a whole community".
Shell has urged "meaningful and constructive dialogue" to resolve the situation.
The Corrib field, a 1 trillion cubic feet natural gas reservoir situated 70km off the Mayo coast, was discovered in 1996 and was Ireland's first significant offshore find since Kinsale Head off the southwestern coast in 1971.
The Irish Republic currently imports most of its natural gas from the UK, but Shell says Corrib gas has the potential to initially supply some 60 percent of annual average gas demand.
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